I added all the wooden boxes to my inventory and climbed onto the airboard.
Our passenger list was a bit of a squeeze: me, an adult man; Grande, a child-sized dragon with a massive tail; Shemel, Bela, Tozume, all ogre girls towering over two meters; Aqual, small and delicate; Gerda, nearly as large as the ogre girls; and Riviera, an adult woman. Even though I’d built my personal airboard larger than usual in case of combat, we were really pushing the limits of its capacity. The three harpies accompanying us were flying to watch the surroundings, so at least we didn’t have to fit them in too.
“I mean, we can probably cram everyone in if we really squeeze,” I said, glancing at the crowd of passengers. “But…”
“In that case, the princess would have to sit on your knees,” Bela said.
“Not happening,” Aqual replied, rejecting the idea immediately.
So in the end, we split into two airboards. I piloted one with Shemel, Tozume, and Grande aboard, while Bela took the other with Aqual, Gerda, and Riviera.
Personally, I’d wanted Aqual to ride with me, so we could talk and maybe close some of the distance between us, but from a security standpoint, this setup made more sense. At least two of the ogre girls needed to stay close to me, and both Gerda and Riviera had to accompany Aqual. It couldn’t be helped.
“So what exactly are we gathering this time?” Shemel asked.
“Anything we can get our hands on, really. You can never have too many building materials like stone, clay, and lumber. Some humus would be great, too. Actually, if I end up using farm blocks, I might risk over-production, huh?”
“Isn’t more stuff to harvest a good thing?”
“Yeah, but the farmland I make is…”
I began to explain things to Shemel, who tilted her head at me.
The fields I made came in different grades. The highest quality used farm blocks made of humus I’d then cultivate myself. Those didn’t require much upkeep; someone else could just sow the seeds and tend to them normally, and within one to three weeks they’d have a full harvest. Pests avoided them entirely, and we’d never had a single bad yield. Obviously, each crop had its own growth cycle, but even the slowest ones produced a harvest each month. By raising cool-weather crops in winter, it was possible to get twelve harvests in a single year. Pretty badass, right?
The next grade down was cultivated from fertile land. Places that were already farmlands to begin with, or areas that were once forests with plentiful humus, for example. Those produced harvests in one to two months without me doing anything. A wheat crop, for instance, could be harvested in one-fifth the usual time. Talk about quick, huh?
The lowest grade was infertile land. Even there, I could make something workable. Crops would mature in about three to four months, and we’d confirmed that even in places like the Omitt Badlands, where even weeds barely survived—wheat could be grown and harvested twice a year.
When I thought about it that way, my agricultural ability was absurd.
“Now I get why the Liberation Army’s food and money situation was so ridiculously good…”
“You can really grow wheat in a week? If you stared at it all day, you’d probably see it sprouting in real-time, huh?”
“I don’t plan on making everything top-tier farmland,” I said, laughing. “But I do want to collect as much humus as we can.”
Food wasn’t the only thing worth cultivating. Hemp, flax, cotton, tea leaves, and sugarcane could all become valuable commodities. Something like beer from wheat and hops, wine from grapes, or oil from olives and brassica could all boost trade. I was sure Sylphy and Melty could manage the business side of things well enough without me to butt in.
“For now, let’s focus on stone and clay,” I continued. “If we find any good lumber around, we’ll grab that too. The only problem is that if I just go around chopping down trees left and right, I could cause a disaster.”
This world wasn’t a game. If I just uprooted trees without a care, I could cause the entire ecosystem to collapse on itself in a single day, bringing on a monster calamity or something. And if people hunted or gathered there, it could have a direct impact on their way of life. On top of that, nearby water sources could go dry, there could be water damage, even landslides. Both Sylphy and Melty drilled it into me not to mess with forests willy-nilly, so I made a habit of gathering resources with care.
“I want to bring back as much as possible, so we should head somewhere far from population centers,” I said.
“Hm… In that case, we could head to the base of the Sorel Mountains,” Shemel suggested. “If we go southwest past the plains, we’ll find some good spots. Not many people go there because of the monsters.”
“Is that really a good idea? I’ve heard wyverns sometimes show up there.”
“I’ve got a plan when it comes to dealing with monsters,” I told the crew. “Don’t worry.”
With that, I steered the airboard southwest, following Shemel’s directions. For now, I kept our speed modest while we were still over Merinesburg. Once we were out of the city, I’d pick up the pace.